Is the idea of navigating music sorted by artist, album, etc. really worth $100m?
It's not that absurd to sort your music alphabetically...

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The settlement probably also means that Creative will be exiting the DAP market in terms of their own Zen units. They've lost money ever since the iPod hit the market and now they don't have the support of Microsoft behind them now that the Zune will be coming out shortly.

Of course, some of us have contended for a long time that Creative's intellectual property lawsuit was a means of getting Apple to purchase their failed DAP business, just as the SCO lawsuit against IBM supposedly was all about originally.

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Good ol' America! Sue, sue, sue!

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I don't think Creative is going to quit the DAP business anytime soon.

They just announced a new version of their Zen Vision PVP and a 60GB version of the Vision:M

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That "m" stands for MILLION, right? 100 MILLION dollars?

I'm astounded.

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While $100M is A LOT of money, for a company like Apple and the millions of iPods they've already sold with an average of a $300 price tag, i think it's very possible this could help them (Apple) make money! With the press this is getting (and will get), you'd think people would just be more inclined to go purchase the next new iPod, because if it's worth $100M to Creative, it's gotta be worth $300 to the average consumer.

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While I disagree with the settlement, it makes sense for Apple. Any prelim judgment against them would have cost them much, much more. Overall, they will recoup some of that money back through Creative's participation in the 'Made for iPod' program.

No matter the settlement with Apple, I'll be shocked if Creative exits the DAP market. They have even more incentive to sue other DAP biggies. Even if they don't grow their market share, there is a possibility that they can remain viable in the market with licensing fees and judgments in their favor.

Now Apple can concentrate totally on new iPods and other new products.

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Good deal for Apple. Patent lawsuits are unbelievably expensive in time as well as money, and take years. To answer the question above, yes, any damage award for Creative (or for Apple if their countersuits were successful) would be based on the value obtained by the infringing party due to the use of the patented technology. In the iPod world, that's *big* bucks (Apple posted revenue of $4.37 billion last quarter of which about half is estimated to be iPod-related IIRC). On top of that you can get punitive damages in some cases, and then of course there would be the necessity of pay license fees going forward.

Weigh that risk against $100 million dollars max (may ultimately be less), ongoing income from the Made for iPod program, and co-opting a competitor into your brand's ecosystem--take that deal.

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Patent lawsuits are going to eat the industry alive. The U.S. legal system is going to be flooded with even more cases like this in the next decade so get ready for it people.

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Hopefully, we can now get some new iPod models. I'm not saying this lawsuit was the only reason the line has become so stale (10 months!), but who knows for sure? Oops, I just drooled a little bit.

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While I don't know much about the case, I think it's cool Apple is following the rules no matter how sucky the outcome for them. In the long run, there is as much of a chance of me buying a "Creative" music player as me buying a Xerox PC. I dig my 5G iPod and my InteliMac way to much, even if they're both big, fat copycats!

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The best legal settlement was when Southwest wanted to use a slogan something like JUST PLANE SMART that a tiny aviation company was using - but instead of suing the crap out of each other, the two founders agreed to arm wrestle (true story!). The founder of Southwest by now was a bit older so he lost but Southwest donated some 5 figures to charity and the other company allowed them to use the phrase ... I think people would've paid money to see Steve Jobs arm wrestle another guy ...

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If I recall correctly, if Creative had won a patent case against Apple, Apple could have had to pay triple damages. In other words, if Creative made a persuasive case that the total damages were $10 billion, Apple could have been faced with paying $30 billion.

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Whoops! Sometimes is sucks to live in Singapore :(( However, even in the homeland of Creative not many people are buying. Club21 has just opened the 2nd (major) Apple Store here (largest in Asia) - all for a Country with slightly over 4M people. I think Creative desperately needed this money to help stay afloat, and please the shareholders.

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@diulei

http://www.creative.com/corporate/about/

Go to that web address and read what is on the page. Creative is based in Singapore. Apple being a company with headquarters in the US got sued by a company with their headquarters in Singapore. So what does that have to do with "Good ol' America! Sue, sue, sue!"?

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I think $100m is well worth it to avoid a protracted legal dispute with all the publicity that will accompnay it. It's a drop in the oceanas far as Apple's liquid capital goes and getting Creative on the Made for iPod gravy train will be worth a few million.

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This post is on the BBC's technology page:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/default.stm

TUAW's famous!

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Wow, all this suing thing is getting a tad too much these days, especially these major cases.

Imagine a 100 million USD .... And as someone writes...

If Creative had won a patent case against Apple, Apple could have had to pay triple damages. In other words, if Creative made a persuasive case that the total damages were $10 billion, Apple could have been faced with paying $30 billion.

Astounding ...

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If I recall correctly, Apple has something like $7 or $8 billion in cash in the bank. $100 million is a small price to pay to get this annoying little company off their back. Especially considering how much patent legal battles can cost.

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